Improvement in alloys



Aren't FFICEQ EUGENE MAItTlN, OF WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT.

lMPROVEMENT IN ALLOYS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent. No. 25,206, dated August 23, 1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Waterbury, in the State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Process of Treating Metals for the Production of an Alloy Resembling Gold; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

The object of my invention is to produce an alloy of copper which shall so closely resemble gold in color and other appearances that when plated with gold the wearing away of the plating shall not be visible, and which shall be so ductile as to readily yield to the graver, that gold-plated articles made thereof may be engraved without indicating to the eye that they are plated, and also that articles made of such alloy, when not plated, shall present the shade of color and luster peculiar to gold, and without either the copper or the brass appearance which have been possessed by all alloys heretofore produced with the intention of imitating gold.

In my process I employ the following ingredients, and for the production of an alloy resembling jewelers gold of from fourteen to sixteen carats I employ them in the following proportion, viz: first, Lake vSuperior copper, (which I prefer,) one hundred pounds; second, puresilver,(twentypennyweightsto theonncc,) sixteen ounces; third, qui klime well pulverized, one pound fourteen ounces; fourth, tartar, non-purified and pulverized, twelve pounds; fifth, zinc, eighteen pounds twelve ounces; sixth, pulverized glass, four pounds ten ounces. I-Iaviug properly proportioned the above-named ingredients, I take a suitable crucible and proceed in the following order: I first melt the copper, and when it is completely fused I secondly add the silver, and as it melts stir the mass, and continue to do so for about ten minutes after the silver is melted. I thirdly add the pulverized quicklime, carefully stirring, and about fifteen minutes after I fourthly add the pulverized tartar, and let it remain in the fused mass about twenty-five minutes. At the end of this time a crust will be formed on the surface, and through this crust I punch numerous small holes of about one-eighth ofan inch in diameter. For the charge herein named twelve such holes will be sufficient, preferring for this purpose an iron wire of the diameter of the intended holes; and after the holes are punched, fifthly, lay the zinc on gently, or so as not to break the crust; and, sixthly, immediately cover the zinc with the pulverized glass, and immediately cover the crucible, and after letting it remain for about twenty-five minutes remove the cover, skim the surface, and the alloy will be ready to pour. By following the above process the alloy prod need will be of a purity surpassing'an y which can be produced by any other known process, possessing a degree of ductility and toughness which will yield to the graver very much like gold and without tendency to break, and when burnished presenting a shade of color and luster precisely resembling gold of fourteen to sixteen carats, so that, when plated with gold of that degree of fineness, wherever the gold may be removed the eye will fail to detect the difference between the gold and the alloy. l

I have above given the proportions of the ingredients which I employ for imitating gold. of fourteen to sixteen carats, as that is the quality of gold most generally employed by jewelers; but I do not wish to be understood as limiting myself to the precise proportions above given, as these may be varied in some slight degree to vary the shade of color as may be desired to imitate various qualities of proportion of zinc, say, to sixteen poundsc;

twelve ounces; and it to imitate gold of from twelve to fourteen carats I increase the proportion of zinc to twenty pounds, retaining in either case the other ingredients in the proportions specified above.

I am aware that some of the substances above named-such as quicklirne and tartar andothernon-metallicsubstancesnotemployed by me have heretofore been applied as fluxes in treating copper and zinc to alloy those metals, but bya mode of procedure and under combinations very different and incapable of producing an alloy such as my process will produce, as all such alloys heretofore produced have distinctly retained the well-known copper shade, or, if losing the copper shade, have presented-\vhat is equally objectionable-the well-known brass shade of color; and I am not aware that in any instance and by any process prior to my invention an alloy has been. produced which, in appearance of texture, in shade of color, and in brilliancy, would,

The process or mode of procedure, substanas the alloy produced by my process will, imitialiy such as herein described, as applied to tate gold so that the eye could not detect the the ingredients such as described, and for the imitation from the reality.- purpose specified.

I do not claim as of my invention the com- EUGENE MARTIN. position of matter herein described; but Witnesses:

sire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

ANDREW DELAOY,

What I do claim as my invention, and de- WM. H. BISHOP. 

